The second term of President Donald Trump began with a flurry of Executive Orders laying out some of the key objectives of his ultra-right billionaires’ agenda. One of these orders threatened to withhold grant money, as well as Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, for any hospitals that provide pediatric gender-affirming care — disgustingly and falsely referred to by Trump as “chemical and surgical mutilation.” Six months later, the impact is being felt acutely.
On July 1, Rush University’s Medical System in Chicago paused all hormonal care for minors. This was followed on July 18 by UChicago Medicine’s announcement that it would be discontinuing its gender-affirming pediatric care program. In Los Angeles, the Children’s Hospital LA has similarly shuttered its Center for Transyouth Health and Development on July 22. The Children’s National Hospital in Washington D.C. also announced it will stop providing gender-affirming care in August, as did Kaiser Permanente, a health care system which spans eight states.
As many people don’t know exactly what gender-affirming care entails, it is important to explain it concretely. Gender-affirming care refers not only to hormonal therapy and surgeries, but also counseling, mental health services, vocal training and more. All of these interventions are recognized as safe by the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and many more professional agencies both in the United States and around the world, and have been widely demonstrated to have a profoundly beneficial impact on the health and well-being of trans people.
In fact, studies have shown that gender-affirming care reduces depression, anxiety and suicidality, while anti-trans legislation has been found to cause an increase of up to 72% in suicide attempts among trans kids. In this light, Trump’s claims that gender-affirming care constitutes “child abuse” are even more disgusting.
The closures of these critical services come in the wake of numerous attacks on the trans community. In addition to Trump’s executive orders, his Department of Justice announced on July 9 that it had issued subpoenas to more than 20 gender-affirming care providers in a display of pure political intimidation. Hot off the heels of a major Supreme Court decision upholding bans on gender-affirming care for minors, the Trump administration has kicked its anti-trans witch hunt into overdrive.
A total of 25 states currently have bans on gender-affirming care in place. These bans have forced many families to travel hundreds of miles to access medical care or, in many cases, to relocate entirely to states where these life-saving medical services are not outlawed.
The latest ratcheting of pressure on medical systems to close their pediatric gender-affirming care programs is part and parcel of the broader billionaire offensive being unleashed by the Trump administration. Just like the attacks on sanctuary policies and DEI, the standard threat is issued: any sanctuary city, any university or any hospital that refuses to comply with Trump’s bullying will be stripped of its funding until it is brought into line.
What does this mean for trans children? At its core, these attacks seek to prohibit the existence of pediatric gender-affirming care anywhere in the country. Through false, anti-scientific slanders against trans health care and those who provide it, Trump is positioning himself as a defender of children at the same time that he dismantles the LGBTQ suicide crisis hotline and prevents trans youth from accessing life-saving medical care. Trump and his billionaire backers are putting the lives of trans kids on the line for purely political gains.
It doesn’t stop with children, however. Several states have moved to severely curtail access to gender-affirming care for trans adults as well. Bans on trans participation in public life, as showcased by the U.S. Olympic Commission’s decision to ban trans women from competing in sports, have also intensified. Like the anti-gay witch hunts of previous decades, the anti-trans crusade is designed to create problems where there are none, establishing new divisive fault lines within the working class in order to hinder our ability to unite and fight against our real enemies: the billionaires.
By threatening to withhold Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements, Trump presents a false ultimatum: if poor and working people want to have their health care covered, then hospitals need to deny life-saving care to trans youth. Yet at the very same time, Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” is kicking millions off of Medicaid! While the ultra-rich are pointing the finger at trans people with one hand, they’re picking our pockets with the other. This shameless con game must be exposed for what it is.
What is needed now is a united fightback movement. Trans people, immigrants, Medicaid recipients: we are all under attack by the same enemy. Our forces will undoubtedly be stronger if we can come together, reject the billionaires’ attempts to divide us and fight to defend all of our rights.
Feature image by Ted Eytan – 2018.06.09 Capital Pride Parade, Washington, DC USA 03177, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70076838
